Active clinical trials for "Meningitis, Bacterial"

Device-associated meningitis is a severe complication after implantation of various central nervous system (CNS) devices such as ventriculoperitoneal (VP) and ventriculoatrial (VA) shunts, external ventricular drains (EVD), lumbar drains (ELD) and intrathecal pumps. In contrast to native meningitis, these infections are hard to diagnose both clinically and on the laboratory basis due to (i) atypical clinical manifestation, (ii) overlapping inflammation following surgery, and (iii) common culture negativity due to previous antibiotic therapy and slow growth of low-virulent pathogens. Also, device-associated infections are difficult to differentiate from aseptic shunt failure (dysfunction) or "chemical meningitis" caused by underlying neurosurgical condition that prompted the placement of the CNS device (e.g. intracranial hemorrhage). Both native and device-associated meningitis carry substantial morbidity and mortality. Rapid and reliable diagnosis of meningitis is critical for initiating and choosing optimal treatment and minimizing the brain damage. Since treatment is different in septic than aseptic meningitis, it is paramount to diagnose or exclude septic meningitis as soon as possible. Several new diagnostic methods, such as cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) procalcitonin, interleukin-6 and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) have been proposed for rapid diagnosis of meningitis. However, insufficient sensitivity and/or specificity, long time until test result, and complexity in handling or interpretation of results limit their use in clinical routine. In previous studies CSF D-lactate test showed good specificity and sensitivity in patients with native meningitis. This biomarker is pathogen-specific - in contrast to other currently used host-specific biomarkers (leukocyte count, L-lactate, procalcitonin). However, no study on effectiveness of D-lactate test for the diagnosis of device-associated meningitis has been performed. Successful management of device-associated meningitis depends upon appropriate control of the infectious complications. To deal with such complications, adequate assessment and prediction of the clinical course are needed. Another use of D-lactate test could be his role as prognostic factor of the clinical course of device-associated meningitis.

The purpose of this European, multicentric, prospective, non-interventional study is to document and evaluate the efficacy and safety of the treatment of severely infected patients with intravenously administered fosfomycin, including patients with osteomyelitis, complicated urinary tract infection, nosocomial lower respiratory tract infection, bacterial meningitis/central nervous system infection, bacteraemia/sepsis, skin and soft tissue infection, endocarditis or other infections, each as far as covered by the respective nationally relevant SmPC.

The Danish Study Group of Infections of the Brain is a collaboration between all departments of infectious diseases in Denmark. The investigators aim to monitor epidemiological trends in central nervous system (CNS) infections by a prospective registration of clinical characteristics and outcome of all adult (>17 years of age) patients with community-acquired CNS infections diagnosed and/or treated at departments of infectious diseases in Denmark since 1st of January 2015.

Neonatal bacterial meningitis (BM) is a devastating infection that occurs more commonly in neonates than in any other age group, and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, especially in developing countries. In this study, we aimed to develop a clinical risk score model, according to the available clinical syndromes and commonly laboratory tests, for screening BM among full-term neonates in a large-scale retrospective cohort, and prospectively validated the risk score in multicenter cohort.

Bacterial meningitis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in childhood. Antibiotic treatment recommendations are based on epidemiological and susceptibility data. The epidemiology of bacterialméningitis has changed in recent years, mainly owing to widespread use of different conjugate vaccines. The aim of this prospective national survey is to describe epidemiology of bacteria implicated in bacterial meningitis in children.

The investigator's purpose is to study the population pharmacokinetics of commonly used antimicrobial agents in children of bacterial meningitis with augmented renal clearance and assess dosage individualization feasibility.

5 Children > 3months and < 16 years with Gram-positive meningitis will receive a single dose of daptomycin 24 hours after the first dose of ceftriaxone. 4-8 hours after daptomycin administration a second lumbar puncture is performed to determine the peak concentration of daptomycin in the cerebrospinal fluid. In parallel peak and trough level of daptomycin will be measured in the plasma. The investigators anticipate that daptomycin penetrates into the cerebrospinal fluid in bactericidal concentrations

Bacterial meningitis is a severe infection of the envelope which surrounds the brain. It is sometimes responsible for a cerebral oedema mattering with a loss of consciousness (coma). The usual treatment of this affection is based on the antibiotic therapy, anti-inflammatory drug and resuscitation measures in intensive care setting but the prognosis of comatose patients remains poor. Moderate hypothermia (body temperature is downed between 32 and 34°C°) made the proof of its efficiency in certain cerebral pathologies (notably the cerebral distress after cardiac arrest or oxygen lack in neonates) but was never evaluated in meningitis. In meningitis animal studies and in severe traumatic brain injury, moderate hypothermia is able to diminish cerebral oedema and brain inflammation. Thus, the objective of this study is to compare two strategies: only usual care or usual care completed by moderate hypothermia. The body temperature will be lowered between 32 and 34°C by means of a catheter placed in a big vein and connected to a machine in which circulates a cold liquid, or by means of an external cooling (ice-cold blanket, ice packs placed on the body). Whatever technique is chosen, the technique is perfectly mastered by the teams which take charge of the patients. After 48 hours, the technique of hypothermia will be suspended and body temperature will return passively and gradually to normal. The investigators believe that moderate hypothermia will improve the prognosis of the most severe patients.

This study aims to improve the outcome of infants (<2 months) with severe sepsis and meningitis at the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, Blantyre, Malawi. Currently WHO recommends the treatment of infant severe sepsis and bacterial meningitis with 14 to 21 day course of penicillin and gentamicin as first line. The second line treatment is cefotaxime or ceftriaxone. Severe bacterial infections are common in infants under 2 months of age and the mortality is very high (~50%). There are several reasons for this; one is that the first line antibiotics used are no longer as effective as they used to be. Bacterial resistance to the first line antibiotics has increased and some infections especially of the central nervous system may only be partly treated and not eradicated by present therapy. First line treatment is cheap and available but requires 4 injections a day, for at least 14 days, a total of 58 injections. Many mothers find this number too much and abscond. The investigators second line therapy is ceftriaxone which is also available and cheap and the advantage of being given as a daily injection. The disadvantage is that it can cause (reversible) jaundice particularly in premature babies and it must not be given with calcium products. The investigators do not give calcium to the investigators infants as the investigators cannot routinely check electrolytes. All the most common causes of bacterial meningitis in this age group in the investigators setting are sensitive to ceftriaxone. The investigators wish to undertake an open randomized trial of penicillin and gentamicin v ceftriaxone as first line treatment for infant meningitis. The investigators are able to monitor for side effects. The investigators hypothesise that the ceftriaxone arm will have 20% less deaths that the penicillin and gentamicin group.

Bacterial meningitis remains a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in children, especially in countries with limited resources. Efforts to improve the grim outcome have included altering the first line antibiotic therapy, controlling seizures and managing fluids more carefully. Adjuvant therapy of steroids has been used with limited success in children in the West and with no proven value in Malawi and other resource constrained settings. Glycerol has been used to reduce brain oedema in neurosurgery and it has recently been shown to reduce morbidity in childhood meningitis in South America. Paracetamol in a high dosage has been shown to reduce inflammation and cytokine levels in septicaemia with improved outcomes in adults. In Malawi the investigators have tried adjuvant steroids with no improvement in outcome of childhood meningitis. They have recently concluded a study of ceftriaxone which has shown no improvement in mortality though there is less hearing loss than with chloramphenicol and benzyl penicillin. Following the encouraging results of the Childhood South American Study it is important to assess the use of adjuvant glycerol in children in the investigators' setting. Paracetamol is routinely used in meningitis because of the accompanying fever and headache. This is an opportunity to study its place as adjuvant therapy more carefully than has previously been done. The investigators propose a prospective, randomized, double blind 2 by 2 factorial designed study to assess the advantage of ceftriaxone (antibiotic) given with paracetamol and glycerol in combination, singly or with neither adjuvant therapy in childhood bacterial meningitis.